Yes, it was a hot one
The temperature at BWI-Marshall Airport reached 91 degrees Tuesday, setting a record for the most 90-degree days in a calendar year and topping off more than eight months of weather extremes in Maryland. Since last winter's blizzards and record accumulations, 2010 has brought drought, crop losses, rising numbers of heat-related deaths and the hottest summer on record for Baltimore. Above, Kelly West tried to beat the heat in July with an egg custard snowball on North Bethel Street in East Baltimore.
Concerned that police departments nationwide fail to fully investigate rapes, a congressional committee will examine the issue next week at a hearing spurred partly by a Baltimore Sun examination of the systemic underreporting of sex crimes.
For 10-year-old Jacob Krause, getting ready for the new school year wasn't a simple matter of back-to-school shopping. It also involved working out logistics for getting to the bathroom as many as 20 times during a single school day.
Philip Carroll, the 86-year-old patriarch of historic Doughoregan Manor in Ellicott City, died Saturday and was buried Tuesday at what was called a simple graveside service for less than two dozen people at the nearly three-century-old Carroll family estate.
Leslie Shepard, director of the Baltimore School for the Arts who has worked at the prestigious school since it opened, will leave her post after this academic year, officials announced Wednesday.
Comments about Baltimore Reporter:
Perhaps the best part of blogging or the internet in general is the occasional discovery of something unexpected.Over on
Baltimore Reporter and Conservative Thoughts is a great and thought provoking article by Robert Farrow.I hope you will follow
this link and read this great post.
from conservativecontracts.com
I love your blog
Once again - as happens so often - I have been positioned here on the living room couch, immersed in your blog. You are
better than Fox News.
Kevin Dayhoff
Awards and Rankings:
Voted one of the best local blogs:
Baltimore Examiner: 2006
Voted Top 10 most influential blog in Maryland in 2007.
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Caution: This video may cause your head to asplode. Wrap your head tightly with duct tape prior to viewing. The tape will not prevent your cranial asplosion but at least you will have all of the pieces for reassembly in your local ER.
Buh-Bye Bailout Bill
Cry havoc, and let slip the bears of Wall Street! That’s what the American people want. That’s what (according to many sources) are filling Congressional switchboards with constituent calls at a rate of 1000:1 against supporting the bailout bill (expect some serious variance depending on the member and district). Still, ya gotta hand it to the American people who FINALLY spoke out with one voice!
How did it die?
Nancy Pelosi (D) and other Democrats’ arrogance killed it when they tried to force Republicans to back a deal that was made largely without them. The reality is of course that if the bill presented was worthwhile, then the Democrats who control Congress could have pushed it through on their own, but there was bi-partisan disdain for it, and that’s how it failed.
Why did it fail?
The reason for the bi-partisan opposition to the $700billion dollar Wall Street bailout package was because there was no $700billion dollar MAIN STREET BAIL OUT PACKAGE. While Barack Obama is on the trail complaining that trickle-down economics don’t work, his party is on The Hill trying to say, if we don’t make things better at the top of the financial food chain, then nothing will trickle down to the rest of America; ie, money does trickle down from investors on Wall Street to people on Main Street. You cannot have it both ways.
How to get it passed?
The solution is simple and three fold
1) The Democratic Party leadership has to act bi-partisan, and that means stop finger-pointing at Republicans for allegedly creating the problem all by their lonesomes (lack of Democrats’ Congressional oversight comes to mind). No way are they going to get support from Republicans while bitching about Republicans
2) The American people have to be convinced that money trickles down from mega investment groups like Freddie and Fannie down to Joe’s Plumbing, and that means Senator Obama’s gonna have to shut up with his ranting about raising taxes on investors, business owners, etc as if it’s not going to have a negative effect on investing, hiring, and pay for average Americans
3) If they want to give $700billion to Wall Street, then they’ve got to give as much to Main Street. There are 102million households in the country that are not owned/paid off. Give each one a tax credit of say…$7000, and bammo! People aren’t in foreclosure, spending goes up, govt doesn’t have to buy the homes ’cause now the owners can make their payments, and everyone’s happy.
Barack Obama talks about pain trickling up to Wall Street. Ok, step up Big O. Give the money to Main Street so they can pay Wall Street, and that will buy the Congress time to re-regulate (more regs or less regs) and solve the problem.
And by the way……!
Could someone give Senator Obama the memo from the DNC (or Congressional Accounting Office) that the war in IRAQ DOES NOT COST $10, 12, or 20billion a week as he claims. It’s about $550billion over 5yrs, and while that sounds like a lot, it’s nothing compared to $700billion in one week that the Democrats’ Congress wants to give to Wall Street so it can trickle down to Main Street.
QUESTION:
While Barack Obama is saying that he’s going to tax the highest earning 5%, and make them pay hundreds of billions of dollars for his littany of programs and giveaways…isn’t it odd that we’re supposed to believe those same 5% need $700billion right now?
also:
Karl Rove – Pelosi Gave Key Democrats A Pass On The Bailout Vote
Of all of the people in Maryland’s blogospohere, I have probably been one of, if not the, most vocal proponents of the expansion of gambling in Maryland. And not just the addition of slots, but also my long-standing support of table gaming here in Maryland.
All that being said, I am voting no on the slots referendum.
The reason that I am voting no is quite simple; the language contained in the Constitutional Amendment has no business being in the actual constitution. I go back to what I wrote last November during the Special Session:
And that’s the problem with the slots plan as currently proposed. Making it a Constitutional Amendment will artificially limit the location of slots parlors to certain jurisdictions or, in the cases of one of the plans floating out there, limiting them to certain geographic coordinates within municipalities or defined areas. That is not the point of a Constitutional document. This amendment goes into specific details about plans that would make the location of slots parlors difficult or impossible to change since any change to those locations would require the approval of the voters.
A Constitutional Amendment on slots, at least one as specific as the legislators are currently discussing, is a problem hatched by legislators to address a concern the voters really don’t have. The voters want the legislators to deal with the issues. The legislators want to pass the buck the voters. Ultimately, the legislative leadership is abdicating its responsibility to lead, and in doing so handcuffing whatever potential profit the state may have from slots revenue given the constraints of using a Constitutional Amendment as a change agent (and as political cover)…
And I stand by that still. The fact of the matter is that such language adopted in the Constitution will make it nearly impossible to correct any shortcomings with slots, particularly with slot parlor locations, once it is ensconced in the Constitution. At that point, If zoning becomes an issue as the Amendment allows, there is no useful way to fix it; any changes would also need to be adopted as Constitutional Amendments and subjected to another referendum to state voters. That’s no way to make public policy. (more…)
John McCain isn’t dead in the water. But he sure is dying. He lost the debate and the polls are dismal. Gallup has him down 50-42. Rasmussen has Obama ahead 50-44. And both polls are only partially after the debate. Obama won the debate. When the polls come in fully after the debate, the picture won’t get any prettier for those of us who favor McCain.
His gambit of suspending his campaign and going to Washington has failed because he did not think it through adequately or correlate it with what was happening in Congress. The Republicans teed up a perfect shot for him. He took the bat but went back to the dugout without even swinging. McCain should have gone into the debate challenging Obama on his $700 billion taxpayer bailout of financial institutions. He should have pushed the Republican alternative. He could have said, plain and simple, that Obama wants to make Americans pay for $700 billion in bad mortgages and McCain wants to make businesses pay for their own bailout through loans and insurance premiums. It would have been a straight shot. But McCain copped out and mumbled something about the deal being the “end of the beginning†and said he hoped to vote for the bailout. It was a failure that may have cost him his best shot at the presidency.
But not his only shot. McCain can still win.
He needs to deploy the tax issue. His campaign has to stop the scattershot web ads and focus instead on a sustained attack on Obama’s plans for tax increases. Stop the pinpricks and go for the jugular. It is only through the tax issue that McCain can win this campaign.
Voters understand that our economy is vulnerable and teetering on the brink of a black hole. McCain needs to capitalize on this new sense of vulnerability and hammer away at the Obama tax proposals. He needs to say that our system is starving for capital. Raising capital gains taxes, much less doubling it as Obama proposed during the primaries (but now is trying to backtrack), is like taxing water in the desert. McCain has to talk about Obama’s spending proposals and mock the idea that he can spend a trillion and still give “95% of Americans†a tax increase.
McCain should take a page out of the playbook of the endgame of the Bush 1992 campaign. (more…)
School Renovations Provide Children New Opportunities in Rashid District
Monday, 29 September 2008
BAGHDAD — At the beginning of their school year, the kids of the Halwan school in Jari Village and Malaly school in Radwaniyah are not returning to the same schoolhouse they left before the summer break in southern Baghdad ’s Rashid District.
Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers, partnered with Civil Affairs Soldiers and local Iraqi community leaders, worked to complete required renovations in time to re-open the schools as scheduled, Sept. 25.
“The whole project had to be completed in less than six weeks,†explained Sgt. 1st Class Eric McCoy, non-commissioned officer in charge of the Civil Affairs team, assigned to the 404th Civil Affairs Bn., out of Fort Dix , N.J.
“The buildings have been re-faced, all of the electrical wires re-ran; a new generator has been installed, and the bathrooms were completely renovated as well,†added McCoy, who hails from Middletown , N.J.
At the first ribbon-cutting ceremony in Jari Village , a neighborhood in the Radwaniyah community, eager students and their satisfied teachers found newly renovated buildings with fresh paint, new desks, new roofing and three additional classrooms.
“The community now has better resources thanks to the hard work of the Coalition forces and Iraqi contractors,†said Sheik Ayad, a local leader of the Radwaniyah District.
Less than one hour later, a re-opening ceremony began for the Malaly school in the Radwaniyah community of Rashid.
Capt. Christopher Johnson, a native of Topsfield, Mass., and is the executive officer for HHC, 4th Bn., 64th Armor Regt., spoke to the crowd of students, teachers, and local leaders.
“This is the future of Iraq ; it begins here with the children,†Johnson said as he reflected on his memories of the school when he first saw it only months ago.
“We all remember when the roof here was falling in, and it was a dangerous environment for the kids,†he said. “This is a better environment for the students and teachers to focus on education now.â€
(By Capt. Mark Miller, 4th Infantry Division)
From Voices of Iraq (Aswat Al-Iraq)
Provincial elections law democratic development-paper
Baghdad – Voices of Iraq
Monday , 29 /09 /2008 Time 11:02:42
AMMAN / Aswat al-Iraq: Arab newspapers on Monday continued their focus on the Iraqi Parliament’s passage of the provincial council elections law following two months of heated debate.
While we in the US concentrate only on our ourselves, and what we always perceive to be our failings, the media fails to point out is that this “rescue plan” is, in some degree, also active in other Euro nations.
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government will nationalize troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (BB) and is discussing the sale of its savings book and branches, people in the banking industry familiar with the matter said.
The Treasury is leading talks on the rescue of the bank and on Sunday said discussions were continuing. A full statement will be made by Finance Minister Alistair Darling before Monday’s market opening.
The Treasury would have preferred a private-sector rescue for Britain’s ninth-biggest mortgage provider, but rivals appear unwilling to come in as a “white knight” amid a global credit crisis and weakening British housing market.
The BBC said B&B will be nationalized and its mortgage book merged with Northern Rock, the lender taken under state ownership in February.
The government this month brokered the takeover of HBOS (HBOS), Britain’s biggest home lender, by rival Lloyds TSB (LLOY) and is stepping in again.
“We are very clear that depositors and ordinary savers must be properly protected and they will be as part of the arrangements we will set out,” Treasury Minister Yvette Cooper told the BBC.
Britain’s top five banks already stepped in for a “save” of B&B back in June of this year. Did we hear anything about that here in the US? Or did we just concentrate on our own bailouts?
Any of this “save the common man” talk familiar? How much is due to the international banking community, and the US failures? Well, if you read one paragraph in the BNEC account above, they say it was “sparked” by the US economy.
But… my my, some familiar scenarios…
B&B’s 24 billion pounds ($44 billion) of savings and its 200 branches could be sold to a rival or rivals. Spain’s Santander (SAN), which owns Abbey and is in the process of buying Alliance & Leicester (ALLL), was in talks about possibly taking over deposits and branches, an industry source said.
But rivals are reluctant to take ownership of B&B’s book of 41 billion pounds of residential loans — representing 3.4 percent of British mortgages — as many of them are higher risk buy-to-let and self-certified loans and the British housing market is weakening, raising the prospect of rising bad debts.
Obviously the UK was not subject to the US CRA mandates. B&B isn’t a US corporation, subject to US mandates. They were, however, taking advantage of the monetary benefits of increasing homeownership and sales with relaxed lender criteria. And, just like the US, they were increasing the number of subprime loans in their lending portfolio.
Other than the subprime loan package offering, was there anything in common here? Yup… the house price rises. While they, unlike the US who experienced the market repercussions of 911, did play with their interest rates to control home prices, they did not dodge the unnatural rise successfully.
As I pointed out in my “perfect storm” post, the UK is going thru a similar, but slightly less drastic housing crisis. Along with the increase of subprime loans, they too had the housing price increase… a key factor in subprime loans being irrecoverable. When you issue paper on over priced homes, you can’t just replace one defaulting buyer with another.
Below, a repeat of the graph comparing the UK astromonical price increase in the past decade.
Anyone else? How about Belgium. Just days ago, the European financial giant Fortis got partially nationalized. And, because of the size of the nations involved, three nations chipped in to nationalizing Fortis.
But wait… it already had a partial takeover last year! Did this little ditty get fed into the overall global market health? Did we even get a sniff of this event??
The deal will force the bank — which has headquarters in both Brussels and the Dutch city of Utrecht — to sell its stake in Dutch bank ABN Amro, which it partially took over last year. Fortis paid 24 billion euros for its share of ABN.
Fortis Chairman Maurice Lippens will be forced to resign and will be replaced by a candidate from outside the company, Leterme said.
“We have taken up our responsibility, we did not abandon” account holders, Leterme told reporters.
Under the bailout, Belgium will invest 4.7 billion euros ($6.88 billion) and the Netherlands 4 billion euros ($5.86 billion) in Fortis’ banking operations in the two countries. In return, they each receive 49 percent ownership in those national arms of the bank.
Luxembourg will invest 2.7 billion euros ($3.95 billion) in the bank’s Luxembourg operations, also for a 49 percent stake.
The deal, orchestrated by the three neighboring countries and EU Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet, is meant to restore confidence in the bank before the reopening of markets on Monday after a tumultuous week in which Fortis’ shares imploded.
Anything else in common… doh! It’s those housing prices! Evidently, back in 2000, you could buy a home in Belgium for half the price you could back in 2007. Remember, the UK is a year behind the US in their housing crash. Could Belgium and other adjacent Euro areas be the same?
Fri 28/12/07 – Buying a residence in Belgium today costs two times what it did in 2000. Prices increases during 2008 are expected to remain limited. This is the prediction according to information by Stadim study agency.
The average price for a house in Belgium the beginning of October was €157,200. This is 50% more than four years ago (€102,000) and roughly double the average price in 2000 (€79,600). (VRT) It’s a buyers’ market Housing prices in 2008 are not expected to exceed 5% for houses and 2% for apartments, though in some places increases of 6-8% could be the case.
According to Alain Declercq, an analyst of ERA Belgium, the largest estate agents in the country, “The price increases today have returned to an acceptable level.”
“Price increases were more than 10% a year between 2004 and 2006. This trend could not continue.”
No sheeeet Sherlock. It’s the same thing I’ve been saying here. Everyone is complaining about the housing price “crash”… but the price rise was so fast, so unsustainable, that it was a major contributor to the 2008 “crash”…. that is evidently happening world wide (if not simultaneously).
What they all have in common is the housing price increase beyond historical rises from the decades before. And while I haven’t documented the Belgium subprime loan stats yet, it will not surprise me to find those exotic loan packages make their way to that Euro market as well.
So what’s the lesson? (too late, perhaps…) Easy money = flood of buyers = unsustainable price hikes = economic spiral.
And it’s entirely possible that a “feel good” Congress started this world wide trend… all by themselves. Oh goodie.
So what’s the story? If the other nations were not under a US mandate to force subprime risky loans, why did the other nations follow suit?
Cash… it was a lucrative market. Private enterprise doesn’t need mandates to identify a money making proposition. And once the US identified that market by government mandates, and the other nations saw just how profitable it could be, is it any surprise that it’s a “monkey see, monkey do” scenario?
So what will be the repercussions? First, it looks like whatever the US does now, other Euro markets… busy lecturing *us* on the capitalism “failure”… will be right on our heels. So will we end up with governments, all over the world being socialized property owners on behalf of their citizens?
Oh my… interesting times. Personally, right now, I can’t put my finger on it all. I can see the domino effect. But their ultimate effect on world wide global economy? Uh…. uh…. duh… Dang, I sound like Obama. LOL
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will pick up on this and play “crystal ball swami” on the world’s economy..
No matter what the specifics, this can not bode well for a global opinion of capitalism. Oddly enough… it’s not a free market failure. Because when you trace it back, it all started with government regulation intervention in the US by mandating easy money. From there, it spread like wildfire thru the free market for the demonstrated profits.
What comes now? Anyone’s guess. One thing for sure… the world may just have to back down in values of property. It’s overdue, and needed… in all countries.
UPDATE: One other “common” factor…
Evidently there’s another bank (Bank of Switzerland) and yet another commonality… AIG. Wow… From today’s London Times Online
A few months ago I was seated at dinner next to a banker and, as you can imagine, my watch immediately started going backwards. Minutes crawled by, and as he droned on about derivatives and sub-prime markets in America I began to wonder if it would be poor form to stab him in the eye with my lobster scissors.
Instead I decided to try to will myself to death. But then I was snapped into hair-straightening consciousness when he casually mentioned that the giant Union Bank of Switzerland was in trouble.
UBS? That’s where I’d plonked all my life savings. What do you mean, trouble? Are you saying that because some Mexicans can’t afford to pay their mortgages I’m in danger of losing the fruits of a lifetime’s graft? The answer, when translated and condensed, was yes.
The next day, in a bit of a flap, I rang the bank, which quite understood my concerns and offered to transfer the bulk of my savings to a company I’d never heard of. It was called AIG.
continue reading at link above
Small “global” world, eh? And nothing to do with Fannie/Freddie, Lehman, etal. This all goes back to the already “rescued” AIG.
also:
Obama/Pelosi & DNC “injecting Presidential politics” into the bailout
“The concern that I have … is that when you start injecting presidential politics into delicate negotiations, then you can actually create more problems rather than less,” Obama told a news conference.
Ah yes, another day, and more words. To suggest that the POTUS candidate for the party making the most noise to the overt nationalization of a sector of the free market should stay away for fear of appearing “political” is absurd at best. Not only should both candidates be actively involved for what is a substantial interjection of government interference into the markets for the next term, but McCain’s presence was more than mandatory. It is, after all, the GOP coming up with alternatives to the very principles of the government buy out of over leveraged paper, while Obama dutifully followed along on his partisan leash.
What was it Obama said? Don’t be “injecting Presidential politics” into this process? Yet over the past days, it was Obama and the DNC, shouting from the media roof tops that McCain’s very participation in the negotiations was a political stunt…. thereby “injecting Presidential politics”.
Give credit where credit is due: Martin O’Malley finally realizes that spending cuts are going to have to happen:
Gov. Martin O’Malley directed state agencies yesterday to look for budget cuts of up to 5 percent that could include layoffs or unpaid furloughs for state employees, as he seeks savings in this year’s budget and prepares a spending plan for next year.
An economic downturn has cut tax collections, so O’Malley must make cuts for the fiscal year that began in July to keep the $14 billion operating budget in balance, as required by law. The Democrat plans to present hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed trims at the Board of Public Works meeting Oct. 15.
As the Governor notes:
“The more reductions we make now, the better off we will be in dealing with an extraordinarily difficult budget next year,” O’Malley said. “While these cuts will not be easy, it is clear that the economic crisis that our nation is experiencing will have a dramatic impact.”
Of course what is complete disingenuous is the fact that the reason such drastic spending cuts are required now is the fact that O’Malley and Annapolis Democrats refused to undertake responsible and prudent spending cuts last year, when we saw a deficit and saw the first rumblings of economic stability. Instead of doing the responsible thing, O’Malley and company as you know raised taxes and increased unnecessary discretionary spending.
Here is one thing that we do know; O’Malley and the liberals in Annapolis are going to try to use these budget cuts as an impetus for…..more tax increases. Never mind the fact that last year’s tax hikes are part of the reason we have a budget shortfall now, but that’s never stopped O’Malley and his ilk going back to the well and trying what has already failed. (more…)
Barack Obama played the “me too” game during the Friday debates on September 26 after Senator John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet with the name of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, a resident of New Hampshire and a soldier that lost his life in Iraq in 2006. Obama said that he too had a bracelet. After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his had the name of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin.
Shockingly, however, Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son’s name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family.
Radio host Glenn Moberg of the show “Route 51″ asked Mr. Jopek, a man who believes in the efforts in Iraq and is not in favor of Obama’s positions on the war, what he and his ex-wife think of Obama continually using their son’s name on the campaign trail. (h/t D. Keith Howington of www.dehavelle.com)
Jopek began by saying that his ex-wife was taken aback, even upset, that Obama has made the death of her son a campaign issue. Jopek says his wife gave Obama the bracelet because “she just wanted Mr. Obama to know Ryan’s name.” Jopek went on to say that “she wasn’t looking to turn it into a big media event” and “just wanted it to be something between Barack Obama and herself.” Apparently, they were all shocked it became such a big deal.
But, he also said that his ex-wife has refused further interviews on the matter and that she wanted Obama to stop wearing the reminder of her son’s sacrifice that he keeps turning into a campaign soundbyte. This begins at about 10 minutes into the radio program. (Download radio show HERE)
TRANSCRIPT
Brian Jopek: Because of some of the negative feedback she’s gotten on the Internet, you know Internet blogs, you know people accusing her of… or accusing Obama of trying to get votes doing it… and that sort of thing.
Radio Host Moberg: Yeah
Jopek: She has turned down any subsequent interviews with the media because she just didn’t want it to get turned into something that it wasn’t. She had told me in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet any more at any of his public appearances. Which I don’t think he’s…
Moberg: It has been a while since he’s brought it up.
Jopek: Right. But, the other night I was watching the news and he was on, uh, speaking somewhere and he was still wearing it on his right wrist. I could see it on his right wrist. So, that’s his own choice. I mean that’s something Barack Obama, that’s a choice that he continues to wear it despite Tracy asking him not to… Because she is a Barack Obama supporter and she didn’t want to do anything to sabotage his campaign, so, if he’s still wearing the bracelet then, uh, that of course is entirely up to him.
Moberg: Maybe there’s a difference between wearing it and making a point to bring it up in your speeches?
Even the snow job that the radio host tried to pull off to cover for Barack’s refusing the wishes of the family of the KIA soldier who’s bracelet he wears doesn’t pass the smell test. After all, now that Obama has made it a big point in the debates, I guess the silent observance of Sgt. Jopek is no longer so silent and Obama is back to exploiting the death of a soldier even when he was asked NOT to do so by that soldier’s parents.
To pile insult onto injury here, the Mother doesn’t even want to force the issue of telling Obama to stop exploiting her son because she wants to see him win the election. Obama is not only taking advantage of this brave soldier’s death, he is taking advantage of the good wishes of the man’s Mother who doesn’t want to hurt the campaign.
And, why is the media not playing this story? (more…)
McCain has transformed a minority in both houses of Congress and a losing position in the polls into the key role in the bailout package, the main man around whom the final package will take shape. He arrived in Washington to find the Democrats working with the Bush Administration to pass an unpopular $700 billion bailout. The Democrats had already cut their deal with Bush. The Dems agreed to the price tag while Bush agreed to special aid to families facing foreclosure, equity for the taxpayers, and limits on executive compensation. But no sooner had McCain arrived than he derailed the deal.
Knowing how unpopular the bailout is with the American people, the Democrats are not about to pass anything without broad Republican support even though their majorities permit them to act alone. Instead of signing on with the Democratic/Bush package, the House Republicans are insisting on replacing the purchase of corporate debt with loans to companies and insurance paid for by the companies, not by the taxpayers. That, of course, is a popular position. McCain would be comfortable to debate this issue division all day. And, if the Dems don’t cave into the Republican position, that’s probably exactly what he’ll do on Friday night’s scheduled debate in Mississippi.
But the Democrats are not about to be stubborn. They know their package is a lemon and need the political cover of Republican support. So the Republicans can write their own ticket…and they will. John McCain will be at the center of the emerging compromise while Obama is out on the campaign trail kissing babies. If the deal is cut before Friday’s debate, my bet is that McCain shows up in triumph. If it isn’t, he shows up anyway and flagellates Obama over the differences between the Democratic package and McCain’s.
By Monday, at the latest, the Democrats have to cave in and pass the Republican version. They don’t dare pass their own without GOP support, so they will have to cave in to the Republican version.
Then McCain comes out of the process as the hero who made it happen when the president couldn’t and Obama wouldn’t. He becomes the bailout expert. (more…)
Gateway Pundit has put up this synopsis written by a international auditor in the insurance industry on a huge mistake made by our government when they took over Washington Mutual. It’s pretty good at giving a rundown of the how, what and when all this happened….and what could happen if the government doesn’t do something to correct its mistake quickly:
The financial crisis is real. Most people don’t realize it yet, but banks, investment managers and corporate treasurers around the world all know what is going on. It started with the Freddie – Fannie collapse. They wrote loans to individuals who they shouldn’t have. Government policies encouraged loans to minorities and the underwriting function of banks was no longer approving loans upon an individual’s creditworthiness but their race was now a factor in the loan decision. When individuals are given loans based on race and not their ability to pay, it is inevitable that bad loans would be written and foreclosures would come. That’s what happened and in a big way.
This caused ripple effects throughout the financial services industry. Firms who consolidated loan packages or guaranteed their creditworthiness were caught in the middle. Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers and others went under. The largest insurance company in the US by some measurements was one of the casualties (AIG). With insurance companies around the globe, AIG is hoping to have some business left when all is over. The government stepped in to rescue this giant by providing capital for the firm while it liquidates portions of its business to pay off the investment derivatives which caused it trouble and then pay off the government loan. The investments became bad when the mortgages went south.
The ripple affect continues. Putnam funds, the largest money market fund in the US and rated AAA, had to close its doors since money managers began to realize that Putnam’s assets were not guaranteed by the Federal Government (unlike cash in banks and savings and loans) and began to ask for their money. Putnam had to sell securities in order to meet the demand. Although they have begun to pay their account holders, their reputation and money market accounts in general have been severely damaged.
Corporations and institutions are scared of losing their money or having it locked up so there is a rush for money. This is global as long lines were reported outside AIG offices in various Asian offices. The Taiwan government came in to help AIG in Taiwan. There are other cases like this worldwide. Rumors are that some banks in Europe may be at risk.
The largest bank to ever be taken over by the government was next. And this is the scary part. Washington Mutual was taken over by the government on Thursday. They were not able to handle the surge for cash requests and became insolvent. The government however has made a big – HUGE – mistake.
In taking over Wash Mu, the government told Wash Mu bondholders that they would not be paid. This precedent when recognized by the investors around the world will cause massive pandemonium if the government doesn’t do something quick. You see the bondholders are people and institutions who buy bonds for stable and guaranteed returns with a payoff based on the bond type. Banks and many corporations raise capital or get money by issuing bonds. If bondholders realize that their bonds with banks will not be paid off if the bank goes under, then the bond will become very risky especially during these times, if not worthless. This will cause banks the inability to raise capital to pay off the depositors they have on the books. Depositors will become scared and more ‘runs on the bank’ will occur in all financial service industries.
The President has made a proposal for the government to step in. They must do so quickly. There is no time to waste. Fear is a great motive and causes people to do crazy things. Already treasurers of companies are divesting their assets from risky investments and moving it to more safe places. This is causing illiquidity in the market and will continue if not addressed. Congress cannot continue to filibuster and lollygag. The world economy is at stake. The root problems of a government policy encouraging bad loans, corporate and government greed (some Fannie Mae executives made off with millions), and a Congress that wishes to put pork on this bill to save our economy must be addressed and now.
The stock market is jittery and could dive quickly while the Democrats are calling Republicans un-patriotic because they didn’t attend a meeting which they were not invited to attend.
Typical partisan crap during a crisis.
Both parties need to can it and fix this thing, its way too important to be monkeying around with politics.
No liberal add-ons (acorn, bankruptcy judges, proxy access)
Govt equity stake likely to be scaled back or dropped. No staff-level enthusiam for it.
Limit on amount of first tranche of money (less than $700 billion)
This deal gets 100 house gop votes
UPDATE 09-27-08 1815hrs PST
Rich Lowry with another update….doesn’t look good:
Just talked to a friend who is plugged-in to all this who wants a deal and has tended to think all along that there will be a deal. Now he’s not so sure. He thinks the wheels are coming off. House Republicans want their insurance as a mandatory thing rather than an option, while the House Democratic caucus is imploding and pulling the deal far to the left. It’s getting ugly.
I think McCain looked great while Obama, while reducing the uh’s and ah’s, looked just ok. It was apparent throughout the whole thing that McCain dominated him, especially on foreign policy. Obama was good at putting out the prepared boilerplate economic positions but still got his ass handed to him by McCain. I’ve never been a huge McCain fan but he showed me tonight he is the most ready to become President of the United States.
Oh, and lets not forget the gaffes….
Here is Obama trying to get a “me to” moment in by referring to a troop bracelet he wore, but didn’t know the name of the soldier on it:
This one is a doozy. He said during the debate that the level of diplomacy he would show to Iran and company would not be Presidential. Big problem, his site says different:
Diplomacy: Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions.
At A September 2007 Press Conference, Obama Confirmed That He Would Meet Specifically With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Question: “Senator, you’ve said before that you’d meet with President Ahmadinejad …†Obama: “Uh huh.†Question: “Would you still meet with him today?†Obama: “Yeah, nothing’s changed with respect to my belief that strong countries and strong presidents talk to their enemies and talk to their adversaries. I find many of President Ahmadinejad’s statements odious and I’ve said that repeatedly. And I think that we have to recognize that there are a lot of rogue nations in the world that don’t have American interests at heart. But what I also believe is that, as John F. Kennedy said, we should never negotiate out of fear but we should never fear to negotiate.†(Sen. Barack Obama, Press Conference, New York, NY, 9/24/07)
Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.
There are other gaffes and falsehoods Obama uttered, like the fact that Obama said al-Qaeda was not in Iraq prior to us invading. Complete and utter falsehood, but what do you expect when you get your talking points from KOS.
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on a the Senate Banking Committee spoke briefly after meeting with congressional leaders, President Bush and both presidential candidates. He said that there is “no agreement” in congress on the bailout.
Shelby said he presented documents from top economists who were very critical of Henry Paulson’s plan. The economists who were all from top universities, said that Paulson’s plan was a “bad plan”, and would create more problems than it would solve, and was a rush to judgment.
Which is a good thing I believe (See Mata’s post below for more information on those economist views presented to the Congressional leaders). I have rarely disagreed with Bush much except on immigration and now this silly plan. Hopefully McCain can push through something that will really help instead of socializing our government any more then it already is.
Meanwhile Ed Morrissey writes about a LA Times article from 1999 that is pretty much a roadmap for how we got to this point:
this LA Times article from 1999 makes the case clearly — and maybe even more credibly, since it praises all of the stupidity and government intervention that created the bubble and the collapse. Clearly, this was not the fault of a free market out of control. Congress and the executive created this problem by extorting banks into poorly-considered lending practices under the threat of prosecution as “unfair lendersâ€. They compounded that extortion with an artificial mechanism to incentivize lenders by having GSEs buy the paper and resell it, with government imprimatur as its guarantee.
It’s one of the hidden success stories of the Clinton era. In the great housing boom of the 1990s, black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded. The number of African Americans owning their own home is now increasing nearly three times as fast as the number of whites; the number of Latino homeowners is growing nearly five times as fast as that of whites.
These numbers are dramatic enough to deserve more detail. When President Clinton took office in 1993, 42% of African Americans and 39% of Latinos owned their own home. By this spring, those figures had jumped to 46.9% of blacks and 46.2% of Latinos.
~~~
Under Clinton, bank regulators have breathed the first real life into enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, a 20-year-old statute meant to combat “redlining†by requiring banks to serve their low-income communities. The administration also has sent a clear message by stiffening enforcement of the fair housing and fair lending laws. The bottom line: Between 1993 and 1997, home loans grew by 72% to blacks and by 45% to Latinos, far faster than the total growth rate.
~~~
Lenders also have opened the door wider to minorities because of new initiatives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–the giant federally chartered corporations that play critical, if obscure, roles in the home finance system. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders and bundle them into securities; that provides lenders the funds to lend more.
In 1992, Congress mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains. It has aimed extensive advertising campaigns at minorities that explain how to buy a home and opened three dozen local offices to encourage lenders to serve these markets. Most importantly, Fannie Mae has agreed to buy more loans with very low down payments–or with mortgage payments that represent an unusually high percentage of a buyer’s income. That’s made banks willing to lend to lower-income families they once might have rejected.
But yeah, keep blaming Bush for this mess….just makes the Democrats look more and more foolish.
To address our current financial crisis, John McCain suspended his campaign and returned to Washington, D.C., today to help build a bipartisan consensus for a proposal that would protect the American taxpayer.
Despite today’s news reports, there never existed a “deal,” but merely a proposal offered by a small, select group of Members of Congress. As of right now, there exists only a series of principles, including greater oversight and measures to address CEO pay. However, these principles do not enjoy a consensus in Congress.
At today’s cabinet meeting, John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan. John McCain simply urged that for any proposal to enjoy the confidence of the American people, stressing that all sides would have to cooperate and build a bipartisan consensus for a solution that protects taxpayers.
However, the Democrats allowed Senator Obama to run their side of the meeting. That did not work as the meeting quickly devolved into a contentious shouting match that did not seek to craft a bipartisan solution.
At this moment, the plan that has been put forth by the Administration does not enjoy the confidence of the American people as it will not protect that taxpayers and will sacrifice Main Street in favor of Wall Street.
The bottom line is that as of tonight, there are not enough Republican or Democrat votes for the current plan. However, we are still optimistic that a bipartisan solution will be found. Republicans and Democrats want a deal that will protect the taxpayers.
Tomorrow, John McCain will return to Capitol Hill where he will work with all sides to build a bipartisan solution that protects taxpayers and keeps Americans in their homes.
Some are trying to blame McCain for the deal not going through which is hogwash. Pelosi has already stated she would not try to pass this thing unless a majority of Republicans are behind it:
Pelosi (D-Calif.) has effectively sent the message that if she is going to jump off a cliff to rescue Wall Street, she wants House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and George W. Bush holding her hands when she leaps.
Pelosi made this scenario clear at a lengthy closed-door meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday. Many of those present said they took Pelosi’s message to mean that a “majority of the minority†needs to support the bill before she will bring it to the floor.
Which they clearly are not.
Then the Democrats excluded House Republicans from the discussions and gave Obama, of all people, a lead role at the meeting.
Doomed to fail from the beginning.
Btw, a good discussion on Hannity & Colmes tonight with Ann Coulter and Pat Caddell:
Over on RM lefty made a comment about the New Deal that I think deserves special attention:
The New Deal regulatory regime worked very well for 60 years. From 1947 to the mid-1970s, this country experienced its greatest period of sustained growth ever. And it was the New Deal system that was the basis of that growth.
Beginning in the 1990s, however, there was intense pressure from Wall Street and elsewhere to loosen these regulatory restrictions. So a lot of them were done away with in the name of “modernization” and “efficiency.” Translation: we need to make more @%@#% money, and these regulations are in our way.
The problem here is with his premise. The premise is that we had unmitigated prosperity for so long in spite of New Deal big government programs as opposed to because of them. There are two main reasons why we had such sustained economic growth in the Postwar period:
Defense spending, which is the only reason that the Depression ended in the first place, continued to be a large portion of the economy for decades due to the Cold War. Defense spending and war has been the only governmetn program in human history that can bring about an economic turnaround.
The complete lack of competition in the global marketplace. Face it, the American economic engine and industrial base had a decade long head start on the rest of the world due to the fact that American industry was ramped up from World War II and the fact that the U.S. was the only industrialized nation that did not suffer substantial to total destruction to its industrial capacity. It’s pretty easy to sell products and build industry and prosperity when you are the only game in town, and that made it easy to sustain our lead in industry and technology for as long as we did.
The New Deal had nothing to do with the success of the Postwar Economy. Nothing whatsoever. It just is not the way things were.
I wrote a while back (as he referenced) about the end of Keynesian economics. But as I have stated before, it was Keynesian economics in the sense of unfettered deficit spending that has gotten us into the mess. (more…)
Principles And The Case For Federal Action [by John Hood]
As others here have said, while critics of the Paulson Plan — as well as any scary leftist mutation of it — are abundant and proliferated, few seem to be arguing for federal inaction. They do believe that timely and significant federal action is needed. They just don’t like the specifics or the precedent proposed by the administration.
This should not be interpreted, or pitched, as a “rejection of market ideology.” I cringe every time I see conservatives seek street cred with clueless but exultant journalists by dutifully admitting that the country or the economy “trumps” their supposed market ideology. Whether intentionally or not, these politicians and commentators are making a horrid situation even worse. Make no mistake: this moment isn’t just fraught with economic peril. It has the potential to be an inflection point in American political history, the beginning of a new and painful bear market for liberty.
Some kind of federal reaction is warranted because the federal government is a major cause of the crisis, and taxpayers are already on the hook for a good chunk of the financial failout. For years, Congress protected and egged on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while refusing even to consider rethinking the mortgage-interest tax deduction that encourages investment in residential housing over other forms of capital formation. Federal policymakers compelled financial institutions to take on additional mortgage risk through regulatory blackmail (thanks, Barney Frank and ACORN!). The Federal Reserve moved its eye off the price-stability ball and alternatively loosened and tightened the money supply in whipsaw fashion. Millions of people responded to these perverse federal policies by taking on additional risk and steering more capital from more-productive investments to the housing market. To argue that because Washington has screwed things up in the past, it should stand back now and see what happens may be tempting, but it is based on an old fallacy. A good analogy is an arrow wound. If someone shoots you with a barbed arrow, your life may be threatened. That doesn’t mean that the best response is just to yank it out, which will further imperil your life.
To say that Washington must act, of course, is not to say that it should allow itself to be stampeded into an expensive, counterproductive bill. Great care should be taken to minimize moral hazard, further distortions of the financial markets and banking industry, and the further erosion of economic freedom. While remaining pragmatic, conservatives ought to try to reduce the taxpayers’ exposure, avoid Hayekian nightmares about Treasury lawyers pretending to second-guess the collective wisdom of the world’s investors, and insert provisions that may actually have long-term benefits.
For example, why not work for a package that reduce the size of the federal debt purchase, suspends perverse accounting rules, and immediately slashes the marginal tax rate on saving and investment? Frankly, it doesn’t make sense to me that authorizing $700 billion in Treasury debt plays is the only thing that can avert crisis, but a combination of, say, only one-third of that amount to the Treasury and the equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars in other responses — immediately lower taxes on capital and higher asset values through accounting reform — would be trivial and ineffective.
You know why I (and many other conservatives) think that way? Because our judgment is informed by our principles. An ideology is simply a way of understanding how the world works. If it assumes Earthly perfection, ignores contradictory data, and amounts to an article of faith rather than a set of empirical insights, such an ideology could indeed become a barrier to understanding and necessary action. But market principles aren’t abstract theory or religious dogma. They are based on decades of modern empirical research, hundreds of years of political practice, and thousands of years of human experience and common sense. There were good reasons to suspect the Paulson Plan, hatched in a few days by well-meaning people in panic, because we know from history how such panicky policies tend to turn out. There were good reasons to doubt what Wall Street lobbyists and Fannie/Freddie apologists are saying about the crisis, because they have strong incentives to spin us and avert our eyes from their own culpability.
Many supporters of the Paulson Plan are in thrall to an ideology, essentially Keynesianism, that tells them that problems like the current financial crisis are caused by irrational animal spirits. They have diagnosed America has having an economic psychosis, from which it can only be raised by wise government therapists, just as Keynes believed that the way out of the worldwide depression of the 1930s was to trick people with pump-priming gimmicks. Critics know better. They understand that investors will respond rationally to the prospect of higher future returns on capital. They further understand that government bureaucrats are highly unlikely to possess superior understanding of and make better decisions about how to manage the nation’s stock of mortgages and its banking and financial firms.
A conservative should never abandon his principles in a time of crisis. He should employ them. That’s what makes them principles, not fashions.
also:
How S&P blew it on rating the mortgaged backed market
Frank Raiter says his former employer, Standard & Poor’s, placed a “For Sale” sign on its reputation on March 20, 2001. That day, a member of an S&P executive committee ordered him, the company’s top mortgage official, to grade a real estate investment he’d never reviewed. (more…)
Whatever is left of the economy after the current round of crisis interventions by the Fed could go down the drain if Obama is elected and carries out his plans for sharp increases in taxation. Even if Obama does not understand the linkage, most Americans do and will turn sharply against Obama’s tax plans if McCain hammers away at the risk they pose for us all.
During the Great Depression, Congress raised taxes sharply in the Revenue Act of 1932. The top rate went from 25% to 63%. As a result, the real GDP dropped by 13.3% and unemployment rose from 15.9% to 23.6%.
In 1990, Buash-41 famously broke his “read my lips – no new taxes†pledge of the 1988 campaign and raised the federal gasoline tax, federal excise taxes, and imposed 10% surtax on the top income bracket, raising its taxes to 31%. The recession which followed in 1991-1992 cost him re-election.
It is obvious that increasing capital gains taxes by a minimum of one-third and possibly doubling them, both of which Obama has proposed during his campaign, would send a clear signal to investors to keep their money under the mattress. Who would buy stock now knowing that the tax on any profits he or she will make is going to go up sharply if Obama becomes president.
Look at what happened just last year in Michigan. Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm raised taxes on almost everything in 2007. Income taxes shot up 11.5% and the state’s 6 percent sales tax was expanded to dozens of new services like investment advice, janitorial services, landscaping, ski lifts,=2 0carpet cleaning, and tanning. The $1.75 billion tax package shook the economy to its foundations. Michigan became the only one of the fifty states with a shrinking gross domestic product (GDP). The value of all goods and services produced in the state fell by one half of one percent while the national GDP rose by 3.4%. The state fell from 23rd in GDP to 35th. Taxes caused a disaster.
In a strong economy, Obama’s tax hikes would raise questions. In a weak economy, they portend a catastrophe. It would be like bleeding a sick patient, the medicine of two hundred years ago, depriving him of blood even as he needs more not less circulating through his arteries. (more…)
This is a strange and scary story. It’d be a thriller of a Tom Clancy novel or a Hollywood movie, but it’s real. Take a deep breath, then check it out…
A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection.
The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates – 50 onboard and 50 onshore. Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair.
It gets freakier. Iran has offered to pay a ransom, but withdrew the offer because they couldn’t come get the ship since the US Navy is in the way (along with MANY other nations) patrolling the area in search of Al Queda, illegal arms shipments, WMD, stuff like that. THEN, reportedly, the U.S. offered to pay just to be allowed to check out the ship! Now, supposedly it’s carrying minerals and such, but the pirates admitted to trying to open some sealed containers in question, and couldn’t because “they didn’t have the access codes.”
QUESTION:
What kind of minerals etc are shipped to Islamic terrorists in Eritrea and has to be locked in containers that require access codes?
Rep. Alcee Hastings told an audience of Jewish Democrats Wednesday that they should be wary of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin because “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.â€
“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,†Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday.
Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,†Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause
I’m sure you’ve heard ads featuring Governor Martin O’Malley on radio, and they seem to be getting more and more frequent. And coincidentally O’Gov’s approval ratings are going up.
The initial round of ads were the ones promoting his government hand outs to those facing foreclosure.
I’ve also heard the ones of him extolling the virtues and great things he can do with the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund. Cleaning Maryland waterways and all… let’s not forget during the campaign how many times he came out and criticized the flush fee. Ahhh the pain of populism.
But now he’s about to go up with his newest advertisement to help publicize his $600 million Medicaid expansion. This $150,000 ad campaign will put O’Malley on the radio, on billboards, on busses, oh but wait… not only are they using the power of the airwaves to contact all those that might be eligible but they are sending personalized letters to all those that ARE eligible.
In marketing, if you had the power of a mailing list that was specifically targeted to every person that will use your product, there is no reason to waste resources on contacting those that do not need your product. BUT… there is a reason if you are using taxpayer dollars to alert others of the great things you are doing to help out in tough economic times.
I bet some of you out there are thinking that this type of thing will backfire. Won’t taxpayers hear about O’Malley giving their money away to others and get angry, especially after the largest tax increase in Maryland history? (more…)
The Democratic Party is pulling out every trick in the book to win the November election…honest or not! The Republican Jewish Coalition has reported: “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad has been quite clear of his intentions to acquire nuclear weapons; his anti-Semitic rants and desire to annihilate Israel are well known. Today Senators Obama and Biden and their supporters have handed Ahmadenijad a big win. What should have been a strong effort by the Jewish community to stand up and show the world that we are united in our fight against a madman has instead been hijacked by those with a political agenda. This is a very sad day for the Jewish community. We are extremely disappointed that in response to political pressure from partisan organizations, Governor Sarah Palin has been disinvited to the “Stop Iran” rally. In addition, we are disappointed that neither Senator Obama nor Senator Biden chose to participate in this important event. Yet again they have missed an opportunity to stand up to Iran and have their voices heard. This is but another example of why Senator Obama continues to have a problem in the Jewish community,” said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks, This coming week Ahmadenijad is to address the United Nations in New York and the rally was to be held to counter his speaking.
This week was outrageously busy for the Democrats!!!! One wonders if they had a hand in blowing the economic crisis out of proportion to make the Republicans look evil? All attempts of respect has vanished in Democratic circles. Decency by Democratic standards is gone. The selection of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate has turned the Democrats to viciousness never seen before. They have attacked her and her family. Imagine if anyone would do that to their families or them. Leftists hackers invaded her private e-mail account making personal family photos and phone numbers available on line to the eyes of the world. Honor and respect has gone and in its place they are out for blood. The Democratic Governor of Kansas Kathleen Sebelius made a statement that the election is close because “one of the candidates” is half black. Biden asserted that it is about time Americans stop being so unpatriotic by not wanting to pay higher taxes. Now Republicans are unpatriotic!!! He urged his followers to “get in (the) faces” of Republicans and Independents. Even Obama at a rally in Ohio, said, ” I need you to go out and talk to your friends and to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.” (townhall.com Mike Gallagher 9/19/08.) It is turning ugly out there!!! What we need to win is moral clarity of those who are true Americans who work hard for success, and celebrate freedom.
The liberal hounds in the main stream media (MSM) have jumped all over Palin’s 17 year old pregnant daughter while passing over Obama’s long-time friendship with unrepentant Weatherman terrorist, William Ayers. Or Obama’s friendship with his pastor for 20 years the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s and his racist anti-Semitic and anti-American ranting’s. The MSM have not mentioned the influential role of the late Saul Alinsky in the lives of leading Democrats. They don’t mention how he turned the party far left with Marxist ideals. Alinsky died in 1972 at age 63 and was a Chicago Marxist. He wrote a book “Rules for Radicals,” in which he explained “The most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired results.” His ideal, “the ends justify the means.” He dedicated the book to Lucifer, who he deemed, “the first radical.”
Hillary Clinton’s senior thesis at Wellesley College paid homage to Alinsky in 1968. When she became first lady she asked Wellesley to restrict access to her paper just as Princeton did when the Obama requested that Michelle’s racist paper was removed from circulation. A group of Alinsky disciples hired 24-year-old Barack Obama to be a community organizer in South Chicago. Clinton and Obama are left of the leftists. (townhall.com Burt Prelutsky, 9/19/08.) (more…)
The Wall Street mess now takes center stage in the presidential race. With company after company biting the dust, can John McCain survive as the representative of the incumbent party?
So far, McCain has focused on a populist criticism of Wall Street and its irresponsibility, firing away at corporate greed and lending practices.
But he has to fuse the issues of the economy and taxes — to show how Barack Obama’s tax proposals would lead to a catastrophic implosion of the nation’s capital base.
With the top Wall Street houses crashing for a want of capital, how can Obama justify an increase, and perhaps a doubling, of the capital-gains tax?
Obama has already said he might drop his tax hikes if the economy weakens. After noting that it’s pretty sad when your best idea for how to help the economy is to abandon your own proposals, McCain should call on Obama to give up on those new taxes right now.
People will sit on their capital rather than invest it if their gains are to be taxed at twice the current rate. And raising taxes on a troubled economy is akin to bleeding a sick patient — mideival “medicine†that does more to kill than to cure.
McCain needs to force Obama to choose between his leftist commitment to income redistribution and the common-sense point that higher taxes on investors and “the rich†would merely deepen the economic mess.
If Obama refuses to abandon his tax hikes, he’ll be seen as putting his ideology ahead of the nation’s needs. If he does the reverse, he’ll be admitting that his tax program has been a mistake — and, by recanting, show how unsteady his hand would be on the tiller.
Hiking taxes at the outset of a slowdown has always made things worse. McCain need point no further back than the first President George Bush, whose tax increase hit just as the economy was slowing from the Reagan expansion — triggering a recession that let Bill Clinton win the White House. (more…)
The LA Times doing its best Obama imitation. (h/t Patterico)
The Associated Press reported this evening and an Obama spokeswoman confirmed that the Chicago-based campaign is pulling its 50-some staffers out of the heavily Republican state full of embittered small towns and shipping the workers east to Minnesota and Wisconsin, where the Democrat’s prospects seem brighter and closer.
~~~
The abandonment of at least one Midwestern state by Obama comes as a new AP poll indicates that race could play a significant role in deciding a close national election. Some experts estimate the first African American candidate of a major party might be as much as 6 percentage points more ahead if he wasn’t black.
Those embittered small town folks clinging to their guns and bibles….racists one and all!
We knew it was coming and the MSM has not let us down. Racism week is now turning into racism month followed by racism excuses to explain Obama losing the election.
It was not that long ago that black people in the Deep South could be beaten or killed for seeking the right to vote, talking back to the wrong white man or failing to give way on the sidewalk. People of color who violated these and other proscriptions could be designated “uppity niggers†and subjected to acts of violence and intimidation that were meant to dissuade others from following their examples.
The term “uppity†was applied to affluent black people, who sometimes paid a horrific price for owning nicer homes, cars or more successful businesses than whites. Race-based wealth envy was a common trigger for burnings, lynchings and cataclysmic episodes of violence like the Tulsa race riot of 1921, in which a white mob nearly eradicated the prosperous black community of Greenwood.
Not long ago? Maybe in the Democrat Byrd’s time…but that was quite awhile ago. Like, a generation ago……1921? Only 87 years ago….
But hey, its all not too long ago.
My favorite line:
But the discomfort with certain forms of black assertiveness is too deeply rooted in the national psyche — and the national language — to just disappear. It has been a persistent theme in the public discourse since Barack Obama became a plausible candidate for the presidency.
Black assertiveness? You mean like Mr. Wright and his US of KKK fame? That kind of assertiveness?
Yeah, that kind of racism and hatred does tend to bring some discomfort. Oh, and that “persistent theme” has only been a theme because of liberals like this NYT’s author who keep the racism charge alive and well to help their precious Obama.
Ok…I may have spoken to soon. This may be may favorite line:
In what is probably a harbinger of things to come, the McCain campaign has already run a commercial that carries a similar intimation, accusing Mr. Obama of being “disrespectful†to Sarah Palin. The argument is muted, but its racial antecedents are very clear.
Yup, complaining that a candidates ads are disrespectful is now akin to racism.
Get ready for more of this. Any complaint, any criticism is now racist.’
also:
White House Releases Bush Record of Reform on Financial Issue
And he was blocked at every turn by Democrats taking cash from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac!
Just the Facts: The Administration’s Unheeded Warnings About the Systemic Risk Posed by the GSEs
For many years the President and his Administration have not only warned of the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at a housing government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) but also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties. President Bush publicly called for GSE reform 17 times in 2008 alone before Congress acted. Unfortunately, these warnings went unheeded, as the President’s repeated attempts to reform the supervision of these entities were thwarted by the legislative maneuvering of those who emphatically denied there were problems.
2001
April: The Administration’s FY02 budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is “a potential problem,” because “financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity.” (more…)
The Pack is back: Panel of former NFL players and coaches say Green Bay is the team to beat (SportingNews.com)
While Sporting News Today officially picked the New York Jets over the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl 45, a panel of former NFL coaches and players has other ideas. The Green Bay Packers lead the pack as the team picked to win it all in 2010, with the Baltimore Ravens as a close-second favorite. Brian Baldinger, former offensive lineman: "Packers over Ravens. I think Aaron Rodgers and that offense is the best in football and will carry them start to finish all year, much like Drew Brees did with the Saints a year ago." Steve Beuerlein, former QB:...
NFL division races: AFC North (SportingNews.com)
A look at the strengths, weaknesses, rehab issues and what to expect in the AFC North, as provided by SN's NFL correspondents: Baltimore Ravens The strength: The Ravens play outstanding run defense. They have two great run stoppers in DTs Kelly Gregg and Haloti Ngata, and they have linebackers who can run in Ray Lewis, Jameel McClain, Terrell Suggs and Jarret Johnson. Most important, seldom do you see their linebackers off their feet. The weakness: The secondary is suspect because the Ravens lack a legitimate star in the starting group.
McNabb will play Sunday, talks about Haynesworth (SportingNews.com)
Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb will start against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 despite the fact that his ankle isn’t 100 percent, he told ESPN980. “Yes, I will be starting this weekend, and I look forward to it,” McNabb told the radio station. “Is it 100 percent? No. … But it’s getting better. McNabb returned to practice Monday after spraining his ankle 2 ½ weeks ago in a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens. He also told the radio station that he’s still getting multiple treatments every day.
Week 1 matchup: Baltimore Ravens at New York Jets (SportingNews.com)
Three story lines 1. How rusty is Revis? The Jets get back holdout cornerback Darrelle Revis, but will he be a little bit rusty after sitting out 35 days during the preseason? The Jets cannot afford that, as his suffocating man coverage is what allows the Jets to send their trademark blitzes. 2. Is Flacco ready for the next step? The Ravens expect QB Joe Flacco to be more of a game manager this year, especially with a team whose defense is banged up going into the season.
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